the bukowski agency new titles and selected backlist
Frankfurt 2011
For excerpts and further information, please visit www.thebukowskiagency.com Contents
Anita Rau Badami...... 2 Stephen Miller...... 4 Frances Greenslade...... 5 Alan Bradley ...... 6 Yasuko Thanh...... 8 Gitanjali Kolanad ...... 9 Wayson Choy...... 10 Judy Fong Bates...... 12 Austin Clarke ...... 13 Anosh Irani...... 14 Ryan Knighton ...... 15 Lori Lansens...... 16 Annabel Lyon ...... 18
CLIENTS...... 19 CO-AGENTS...... 20 Anita Rau Badami Tell It to the Trees A beloved, bestselling writer returns to the domestic canvas of her award-winning books, Tamarind Mem and The Hero’s Walk, with a tense mystery and heart-rending story of family life set in an Indian household in a small town in northern BC.
60,000 words hardcover / Page proofs now available
One freezing winter morning a dead body is found in the backyard of the Dharma family’s house . It’s the body of their tenant, Anu Krishnan . Why had she, a stranger to the mountains, been foolish enough to go out into the blizzard? From this gripping opening, Anita Rau Badami threads together a story of love and need, and of chilling secrets never told aloud .
For Anu, seeking a secluded retreat from the city, the Dharmas—the authoritarian Vikram, his aged mother, gentle Suman whom he has RIGHTS SOLD brought from the bustling warmth of India in a swiftly arranged marriage, their young daughter, Varsha, and her little brother—are a Canada: Knopf, Fall 2011 tightly knit family with values to uphold . However, Anu’s arrival will Italy: Piemme change the balance of the Dharma household, and when the secrets start to spill out, something terrible is bound to happen…
PRAISE FOR ANITA RAU BADAMI’S FICTION “Badami has woven a web of memory and myth in her novel, a tapestry in which the personal and the political are tragically intertwined.” —THE CALCUTTA TELEGRAPH
“A great story, gilded with gorgeous prose and vividly realized characters … Raw, funny, poignant and thought-provoking.” —THE AUSTRALIAN WOMAN’S WEEKLY Anita Rau Badami’s “This is a substantial, satisfying read, elegantly written and effortlessly first novel was the hugely compelling. Much reminiscent of Rohinton Mistry.” successful bestseller —THE INDEPENDENT, UK Tamarind Mem. Her bestselling second novel, “A skilled writer can convey epic events through the lives of ordinary The Hero’s Walk, won the people. Badami’s [book] is an outstanding example of such skill…. In Regional Commonwealth graceful prose, replete with the sensuous details of everyday life, she Writers’ Prize, Italy’s Premio gives us a portrait of resilience and adaptability in the face of personal Berto, and was named a disillusion, trauma, and disintegrating tradition.” Washington Post Best Book —COMMONWEALTH PRIZE JURY of 2001. Her third novel, Can You Hear the Nightbird “This book demands to be read straight through—20 pages a night before Call?, was released in switching off the bedside lamps will leave most readers longing for more.” 2006 to great acclaim. The recipient of the Marian Engel —The Washington Post Award for a woman in mid- Visit Anita’s website at http://www.anitaraubadami.ca/ career, Anita is also a visual See more about this book at http://youtu.be/860UdIpLdYU artist. She lives in Montreal.
2 fiction
Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? A novel that traces the epic trajectory of terrorism through time and space in the lives of women connected to the 1982 Air India Disaster.
95,000 words hardcover / Finished books available
RIGHTS SOLD Canada: Knopf, 2006 Holland: De Geus, India: Penguin, 2007 France: Philippe Rey, 2008 Australia: Scribe, 2007 Italy: Marsilio, 2008 2007
The Hero’s Walk When a North American granddaughter returns to the land of her grandparents, The Hero’s Walk examines the nature of family and forgiveness through the lives of people bewildered by the rapid pace of change in today’s India.
368 pages hardcover / Finished books available
RIGHTS SOLD France: Stock Poland: Dialog US: Algonquin Spain: Bronce Portugal: Difel US Paperback: Catalan: Columna Italy: Marsilio Ballantine Canada: Knopf Holland: De Geus UK: Bloomsbury Greece: Kastaniotis
Tamarind Mem A touching portrait of the relationship between two generations of women on two continents.
266 pages hardcover / Finished books available
RIGHTS SOLD US: Algonquin, 2002 France: Philippe Rey Serbia: Mono i Canada: Knopf India: Penguin Manjana UK: Bloomsbury, Germany: 2002 Bertelsmann
fiction 3 Stephen Miller The Messenger The Messenger is an explosive and timely thriller that takes the reader into the mind of a terrorist. Irresistibly relevant to the times we live in, it is a heart-stopping thrill-ride to the last page.
90,000 words / Final manuscript now available
On a bright, sunny day in September 2012, not unlike another fateful September day eleven years earlier, a plot to bring down America begins to unfold . An elegantly dressed young woman boards a plane in Berlin for New York knowing that she, like the Spanish conquistadors before her, will unleash a plague of certain death on the unsuspecting inhabitants of the New World . The Messenger is the story of her travels across the USA, and the rogue American scientist who is determined to stop her . RIGHTS SOLD “Daria” is a refugee from one of the many overcrowded, poverty- stricken refugee camps that dot the Middle East . She has been North America: Bantam, groomed for years by her terrorist handlers . She is a lustrous August 2012 diamond, polished, educated at the finest schools and Westernized Israel: Kinneret to wipe out any trace of her Middle Eastern heritage . She passes Spanish language: Viceversa herself off as a cultured, dark-skinned Italian woman from an Audio: Recorded Books aristocratic Florentine family, all the while harboring a seething Denmark: Punktum hatred of the West and everything it represents . The wars that claimed the lives of her brothers and her father feed her need for revenge—and revenge she will have . America will lie in waste at Stephen Miller is a her feet . Vancouver-based author and actor who has But soon she has a scientist on her trail who thinks he can put a stop appeared on a variety of to her lethal journey . He has long predicted that something like this television shows including would happen, and has been consistently ignored . Now is his chance DaVinci’s Inquest, DaVinci’s to be vindicated . City Hall, X-Files and Millennium. He is the author Visit Stephen’s website at http://www.stephenmillerwriter.com/ of two acclaimed historical thrillers: Field of Mars and The Last Train to Kazan.
4 fiction Frances Greenslade Shelter A spellbinding and wise coming-of-age story, Shelter draws readers into the precarious world of two young sisters in search of their missing mother, and brings to life a breathtaking landscape.
87,000 words hardcover / Finished books available
Shelter follows the quest of two sisters to find out what happened to their mother, who left one day with a promise to return, but never did . They not only discover what happened to her, they also discover who she really was beyond simply being their mom, and come to understand the varieties of love and forgiveness .
PRAISE FOR FRANCES GREENSLADE “Poignant, tender and vivid, Shelter traces the relationship of two daughters with their missing mother through family stories. Greenslade’s gorgeous RIGHTS SOLD landscapes and loving attention to her characters make this journey through Canada: Knopf, Fall 2011 loss and survival unforgettable. I was glued to every page.” US: Free Press, Summer –EDEN ROBINSON, author of Monkey Beach 2012 “This book casts a strong spell. Greenslade depicts the battle between UK: Virago different types of love with harrowing intensity and quiet compassion. Holland: Orlando The landscape is so vividly rendered, it is a character all on its own, and Germany: Mare Verlag sisters Maggie and Jenny are unforgettable in their resilience. Shelter shows us how wilderness can be a safer haven than a home with four walls, but also how love, despite its heartbreaking unpredictability, remains the shelter we desire most.” –Jamie Zeppa, author of Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan and Every Time We Say Goodbye
“From the very first page, this eloquent, evocative book crept into my heart and wouldn’t go away. I think it will linger inside me for a long, long time—like a powerful dream or one of those take-your-breath-away kind of tales that someone tells you in childhood and years later, still haunts you. Shelter is an unforgettable novel about love, loss, family, and what it means to go home.” —Mira Bartók, author of The Memory Palace
Visit Frances’ website at http://www.francesgreenslade.com/
Frances Greenslade was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, where she grew up with four sisters and one brother playing among the orchards of the Niagara Peninsula. She earned an English degree at the University of Winnipeg before moving to Vancouver, where she completed an MFA in Creative Writing at UBC in 1992. Francis lives in Penticton, B.C., where she teaches English Literature at Okanagan College.
fiction 5 Alan Bradley I Am Half-Sick of Shadows The Christmas book of 2011!
67,000 words / Page proofs now available
It’s Christmastime, and the precocious Flavia de Luce—an eleven- year-old sleuth with a passion for chemistry and a penchant for crime-solving—is tucked away in her laboratory, whipping up a concoction to trap Saint Nick . But she is soon distracted when a film crew arrives at Buckshaw, the de Luce’s decaying English estate, to begin shooting a movie starring the famed Phyllis Wyvern . Amid a raging blizzard, the entire village of Bishop’s Lacey gathers at Buckshaw to watch Wyvern perform, yet nobody is prepared for the evening’s shocking conclusion: the actress’s body found, past midnight, strangled to death by a length of film from one of her own movies . But who among the assembled guests would stage such a chilling scene? As the storm worsens and the list of suspects grows, RIGHTS SOLD Flavia must use every ounce of sly wit at her disposal to ferret out a killer hidden in plain sight . US: Bantam Books, November 2011 UK: Orion, November 2011 PRAISE FOR ALAN BRADLEY’S FICTION Canada: Doubleday, “If ever there was a sleuth who’s bold, brilliant, and, yes, adorable, it’s November 2011 Flavia de Luce.” US Audio: Random House —USA Today Japan: Tokyo Sogensha “Irresistibly appealing…. Impressive as a sleuth and enchanting as a Poland: Vesper mad scientist, Flavia is most endearing as a little girl who has learned Netherlands: Luitingh-Sijhoff how to amuse herself in a big lonely house.” Germany: Blanvalet –THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW Alan Bradley’s novel, “Delightful … [Flavia is] a combination of Eloise and Sherlock Holmes. … fearless, cheeky, wildly precocious.” The Sweetness at the —The Boston Globe Bottom of the Pie, has won many awards “This idiosnycratic young heroine continues to charm.” including: –THE Wall Street Journal • Macavity Award for “Flavia is mercilessly addictive.” Best First Mystery –Daily Telegraph Novel • Barry Award for Best Visit Alan’s website at http://www.flaviadeluce.com/ First Novel • Agatha Award for Best Alan Bradley is the internationally bestselling author of short stories, First Novel children’s stories, newspaper columns, and the memoir The Shoebox • Dilys Winn Award Bible. The Flavia de Luce mystery series has been sold in 35 territories • Arthur Ellis Award for and has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. The books have Best Novel been bestsellers in Canada, the USA, Germany, Spain, Mainland • Spotted Owl Award China, Taiwan, Israel, and Holland, appearing on bestseller lists in The for Best Novel New York Times—where the first two books appeared simultaneously— • CWA Debut Dagger and Der Spiegel for four months. Alan Bradley lives in Malta with his wife Award and two calculating cats.
6 fiction A Red Herring Without Mustard The third instalment of the Flavia de Luce mystery series. 95,000 words / Finished books available
RIGHTS SOLD Italy: Mondadori, 2011 Lithuania: Leidykla VAGA N. America audio: Random Spain: Planeta Taiwan: Azoth House Audio (US) Germany: Blanvalet, 2011 Poland: Vesper Canada: Doubleday, 2011 France: JC Lattès Japan: Tokyo Sogensha US large print: Thorndike Korea: Munhakdongne Russia: AST US: Bantam, 2011 Romania: Editura Trei, 2011 Croatia: Naklada Ljevak Mainland China: Brazil: Saraiva UK: Orion, 2011 Hongwenguan Holland: Sijthoff The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag The second instalment of the Flavia de Luce mystery series. 384 pages / Finished books available
RIGHTS SOLD Korea: Munkakdogne Poland: Vesper US Large print: Thorndike France: JC Lattès Spain: Planeta US: Delacorte, 2010 Catalan: Columna Mainland China: Hongwenguan Canada: Doubleday, 2010 Denmark: Forlaget Punktum Albania: Morava UK Audio: W.F. Howes Taiwan: Azoth Bulgaria: AMG Books UK: Orion, 2010 Germany: Blanvalet Croatia: Naklada Ljevak Japan: Tokyo Sogensha Portugal: Planeta Manuscrito Lithuania: Leidykla VAGA Israel: Matar Italy: Mondadori Press Holland: Luitingh-Sijthoff Brazil: Saraiva Romania: Editura Trei, 2011 Norway: Press The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie The first novel in a debut crime series introduces a new breed of detective heroine in a pigtailed eleven-year-old with disturbing fascinations. 96,000 words / Finished books available
RIGHTS SOLD Poland: Vesper Russia: AST US large print: Thorndike Germany: Blanvalet, 2009 Hungary: Ulpius-haz N. America audio: Random Greece: Lyhnari Portugal: Planeta Manuscrito House Audio (US) France: JC Lattès Serbia: Marso UK: Orion, 2009 Korea: Munhakdongne Vietnam: Alphabooks US: Bantam, 2009 Israel: Matar Holland: Luitingh-Sijthoff Canada: Doubleday, 2009 Catalan: Columna Bulgaria: AMG Brazil: Saraiva Japan: Tokyo Sogensha Romania: Editura Trei Iceland: Forlagid Slovakia: Ikar Denmark: Forlaget Punktum Croatia: Naklada Ljevak Norway: Press Mainland China: Hongwenguan Spain: Planeta UK Audio: W.F. Howes Arabic language: Arab Turkey: Domingo Taiwan: Azoth Scientific Italy: Mondadori, 2009 Albania: Morava Lithuania: Vaga Czech Republic: Euromedia
fiction 7 Yasuko Thanh Teddy’s Blow-Off Attraction Yasuko Thanh explores the nature of love and the lengths women will to go for it, or its facsimile; as well as the ever- evolving definition of what it means to be human, and how the rest of us respond to those who don’t conform to it.
74,000 words / Manuscript available November 2011 • 2009 winner of the annual Journey Prize for the best short story published in Canada
Based on the true story of Julia Pastrana (1834-1860), a Mexican woman known variously as Ape Woman, Bear Woman, and The Bearded Lady, Yasuko Thanh’s novel takes us inside the life of a nineteenth-century international celebrity named Malipa Espinosa, whose face and body were covered entirely with hair . Petite and shapely but with an ape-like visage, Malipa toured the U .S ., U .K ., and Europe, singing and dancing exquisitely with her face obscured by a veil . She Yasuko Thanh was a finalist was her husband and manager Teddy Lent’s blow-off attraction: the for the Future Generations grand finale of his carny show . It ended with the removal of her veil . Millennium Prize, the Hudson Prize, and the Dave Adams In the age of Darwin, Malipa came to be seen as the missing link between Richards Prize, which apes and humans . She died shortly after giving birth to a child in Russia recognizes unpublished manuscripts. The story in 1860—but her touring did not end until the 1970s . Teddy’s Blow-Off “Floating Like the Dead” won Attraction will resonate with everyone who has ever felt like a freak . the prestigious Journey Prize in 2009. Yasuko recently received her MFA from the Floating Like the Dead: University of Victoria. Stories by Yasuko Thanh Introducing an exciting new voice in fiction
67,000 words / Final manuscript available September 2011
In this sharply observed and erotically charged debut collection, Journey Prize winner Yasuko Thanh immerses us in the lives of people on the knife edge of desire and regret, hungry for change . In “Her Vietnamese Boyfriend,” a story set in 1960s Germany that crackles with sexual tension, a young woman is sent to work for a farmer as a homemaker while his wife is away . In “His Lover’s Ghost,” a man is forced to confront his own fears about being left behind when his dying lover becomes convinced he is being visited by a ghost . In “Hunting in Spanish,” a woman in a Mexican resort town where anything goes pushes herself to the limits of love and despair . And in the Journey Prize-winning title story, “Floating Like the Dead,” a group of Chinese lepers at the turn of the twentieth century spend their last days dreaming of escape from exile on a remote island off the RIGHTS SOLD coast of Canada . The characters in these stories are expats, outsiders, Canada: McClelland & and outliers; yet in their struggles to be themselves and to belong, they Stewart April 2012 remind us of our own deepest longings and desires .
8 fiction Gitanjali Kolanad Sleeping With Movie Stars Gitanjali Kolanad transforms fragments of life into stories of love, infidelity and betrayal with the grace, elegance and effortless ease of a classical dancer. Sleeping with Movie Stars is a compelling and erotic read, told through 8 linked stories.
60,000 words / Finished books available • Longlisted for the 2011 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award
This collection of eight short stories traces the life of a dancer through the years . In the seventies she is sent as a teenager from Canada to study dance in India, away from the corrupting influences of the West . She finds instead a world of sensuality beyond anything previously experienced . She meets a movie star, goes on bike rides RIGHTS SOLD with boys she doesn’t know, and learns about the perils of falling in love from the plight of an older revered man . Time and again, India: Penguin, Spring 2011 she comes back to India, as a wife and a mother, to rediscover the earthiness and passion of her youth . ALSO AVAILABLE My Heart Beating on PRAISE FOR GITANJALI KOLANAD My Tongue The Temple Dancer “[Gitanjali’s] writing is urbane, unexpectedly clean of all clutter for a first-person narrative. Both native and foreigner, she maintains a cautious distance from experience. It is a curiously clever device. It allows one to appreciate the ebb and flow of her experiences without being unduly caught up in the drama of them.” –HINDUSTAN TIMES
Visit Gitanjali’s website at http://www.gitanjalikolanad.com
Gitanjali Kolanad is an Indo-Canadian writer who teaches the martial art form kalaripayat, after having been a bharatanyam dancer for more than thirty years. She won second prize in the 2009 CBC Literary Competition for the second story in this linked collection, “The American Girl.”
non-fiction 9 Wayson Choy Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying Not Yet is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly written by a survivor who cheated death twice and reclaimed his life.
60,000 words / Finished books available • A national bestseller • A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2009 “Illness and recovery are sensitively and sensuously rendered, with candour, humour and authenticity. … It is a pleasure to have his continuing presence (haunted, though it is by the weight of the past and his own physical frailties) in our community of storytellers.” —GLOBE AND MAIL “Not Yet is a powerful work, an account of a life almost lost, a questioning of how a life should be lived, and an inquiry into the role of the past and its RIGHTS SOLD impact on the present. It is a chronicle of finding oneself after the deepest Canada: Doubleday, 2009 of traumas, in the arms and eyes of friends. It is a work that blends tension Australia: Scribe and sadness with joy and contemplation. And it is a reminder, as if we Croatia: Naklada Ljevak needed one, of why Wayson Choy is beloved, as a writer and as a man.” French Canada: XYZ, 2012 —OTTAWA CITIZEN “Choy ranks among the finest writers in this country. …Not Yet is another building block in Choy’s astonishing, unique, ongoing multi- volume, multi-genre portrait of who he is and how he came to be himself.” –MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood Three weeks before his fifty-seventh birthday, Wayson Choy received a surprising phone call: a mysterious woman told him that he had been adopted. A beautifully wrought memoir, Paper Shadows is inspired by this startling revelation.
342 pages hardcover / Black-and-white photographs throughout / Finished books available
RIGHTS SOLD Canada: Penguin US: Picador Australia: Penguin
• Shortlisted for the 1999 Governor General’s Award • Shortlisted for the inaugural Drainie-Taylor Prize • A 1999 Globe and Mail Notable Book of the Year Forthcoming Title • A national bestseller A Single Heart • Winner of the Edna Staebler Creative Non-Fiction Award
10 non-fiction
All That Matters Growing up in Vancouver’s Chinatown during the 1930s and 1940s, Kiam Chen is caught in a tangle of mixed loyalties. As first son, he is trapped between the old China ways and a world that is rapidly changing.
423 pages hardcover / Finished books available
RIGHTS SOLD US: Other Press, 2007 Australia: Penguin, 2005 Canada: Doubleday, 2004 French Canada: XYZ
• Winner of the 2004 Trillium Prize • Shortlisted for the 2004 Giller Prize • Longlisted for the 2006 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award • A national bestseller The Jade Peony Chinatown, Vancouver, of the early 1940s provides the backdrop for this fresh, uplifting novel, told through the reminiscences of the three young children of an immigrant Chinese family.
238 pages hardcover / Finished books available • Winner of the 1995 Trillium Prize • Winner of the 1995 City of Vancouver Book Award • Named as one of the 100 Most Important Books in Canadian History • An American Library Association Notable Book of the Year
PRAISE FOR THE WORK OF WAYSON CHOY “In China, [Choy] tells us, a figure called the ‘dark storyteller’ reveals ‘hidden things not seen in the glare of daylight.’ Working in a new RIGHTS SOLD country and a new context, Wayson Choy has deftly continued that US: Other Press, 2007 tradition [in] a fine… novel.” Canada: Douglas & McIntyre —NEW YORK TIMES Australia: Penguin “[This] is a sweet and funny novel and accomplishes so much of what Germany: Ullstein we expect in good fiction. Certainly, the novel delights us with beautifully French Canada: XYZ written prose, but it does more than that, too. It renders a complex and Holland: De Vliegende complete human world, which… we have learned to love.” Hollander —BOSTON BOOK REVIEW China: Nankai University Press “Choy’s graceful writing seems to conjure up the very spirit of a quiet child who notices all. [He is] a master storyteller.” —THE SEATTLE TIMES
fiction 11 Judy Fong Bates The Year of Finding Memory: A Memoir A probing memoir about a daughter’s search to understand remarkable and terrible truths about her parents’ past.
80,000 words hardcover / Finished books available
PRAISE FOR JUDY FONG BATES’ THE YEAR OF FINDING MEMORY “This memoir, like all true memoirs, has the piercing sharpness of unexpected life-affecting revelations… this is one of those rare memoirs where the reader never wants the book to end.” —THE GLOBE AND MAIL
“Judy Fong Bates’ new memoir, The Year of Finding Memory, is the most accurate and heart felt written account of what it’s like to explore the Chinese countryside in search of your roots. [She] captures the RIGHTS SOLD beauty of the villages, the sense of returning home to a place you’ve Canada: Random House, never been, the heartache, joy, understanding and longing that you feel, 2010 and that very real there-but-for-the-grace-of-God emotion that you experience in meeting your relatives who were left behind. Beautiful!” —LISA SEE, AUTHOR OF SHANGHAI GIRLS
Midnight at the Dragon Café The life of a young Chinese girl is torn apart by dark family secrets and divided loyalties in a small Ontario town in the 1950s.
315 pages hardcover / Finished books available
RIGHTS SOLD US: Counterpoint, 2005 Thailand: Sanskrit Canada: McClelland & Stewart, China: Nankai University Press 2004
PRAISE FOR JUDY FONG BATES’ MIDNIGHT AT THE DRAGON CAFÉ “In deceptively simple, intimate prose, Judy Fong Bates captures the complexities of a childhood filled with secrets, longing, and superstition, and powerfully exposes the lengths to which families will go to survive. Midnight at the Dragon Café is an original, haunting debut novel.” Also Available China Dog and Other Stories —KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred review from the Chinese Laundry “The mounting suspense of family secrets makes this first novel a breathless read, even as the simple, beautiful words make you want to RIGHTS SOLD stop and read the sentences over and over again.” US: Counterpoint —BOOKLIST, starred review Canada: McClelland & Stewart Visit Judy’s website at http://www.judyfongbates.com/
12 fiction & non-fiction Austin Clarke More The much anticipated new novel from the winner of The Giller Prize, The Commonwealth Prize, and The Trillium Prize.
90,000 words / Finished books available • Winner of the 2009 Toronto Book Award
PRAISE FOR AUSTIN CLARKE’S More “More may stand as one of the crowning achievements of Clarke’s career.” —QUILL & QUIRE
“Clarke brings into the light the dignity and strength with which our mothers and grandmothers have borne their daily exclusions from the more genteel spaces of Canadian identity. By choosing to write Idora’s story as Toronto’s story, at the height of his literary power, Clarke boldly challenges, and transforms, Canadian sense and sensibility.” RIGHTS SOLD —THE GLOBE AND MAIL US: Amistad, 2009 “[More] is Clarke’s bravest book and one whose redemptive quality Canada: Thomas Allen, 2008 ultimately leaves the reader wanting more.” Australia: HarperCollins, 2009 —THE COURIER-MAIL, AUStralia UK: Tindal Street, 2010 The Polished Hoe The entire African diaspora implodes in one murderous night on the West Indian island of Bimshire.
467 pages hardcover / Finished books available • #1 national bestseller—over 17 weeks on bestseller lists
PRAISE FOR AUSTIN CLARKE’S THE POLISHED HOE “Respect to Tindal Street Press for bringing to the UK this soaring and sorrowful novel of Caribbean life…. Austin Clarke creates a seething panorama of sex, race and power…. The novel’s language proves as lush, seductive—and dangerous—as its landscape.” —THE INDEPENDENT, UK
“Out of a single act of retribution, Clarke has in fact spun an entire history, one in which freedom, love, and even languor all have RIGHTS SOLD their place.” US: Amistad, 2003 —THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW Canada: Thomas Allen, 2002 “With an obvious affection for Caribbean cadence and its rum-soaked Holland: De Geus, 2005 asides, Clarke unfolds Mary’s story through the meandering statement UK: Tindal Street, 2004 she gives to the police after she has taken gruesome revenge on Australia & New Zealand: her ‘master’.” HarperCollins, 2004 —THE NEW YORKER
fiction 13 Anosh Irani Dahanu Road Set in the town of Dahanu on the outskirts of Bombay, this is a tale of two opposing clans—the Iranis and the Warlis—and the forbidden love that brings them together with tragic results.
80,000 words hardcover / Finished books available • National Bestseller Visit Anosh’s website at http://www.anoshirani.com/
RIGHTS SOLD Italy: Piemme, Turkey: Inkilap Canada: Doubleday, December 2010 Kitabevi Spring 2010 India (English): HarperCollins India The Song of Kahunsha A new novel by one of Canada’s brightest young writers about the power of the imagination to help us overcome the most formidable obstacles. 70,000 words hardcover / Finished books available • A bestseller in Italy and Canada
RIGHTS SOLD France: Philippe Rey Brazil: Planeta US: Milkweed, 2007 Israel: Kinneret Mainland China: Canada: Doubleday, Greece: Agyra, 2007 Beijing Booky 2006 Portugal: Quetzal Taiwan: Italy: Piemme, 2007 Portugal (book club ed.): Commonwealth Russia: Phantom Spain: Alfaguara, 2007 Circulo de Leitores The Cripple and His Talismans A modern-day, Indian, male rendition of Alice’s journey through the looking glass. 252 pages hardcover / Finished books available PRAISE FOR Anosh Irani’S THE Cripple and his Talismans “[A] lush debut novel...an undercurrent of dark humor as well as Irani’s atmospheric evocation of Bombay enliven this compelling story.” –PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
RIGHTS SOLD US: Algonquin, 2005 Germany: Europa, Taiwan: Business Canada: Raincoast, 2005 Weekly, 2007 2004
14 fiction Ryan Knighton C’mon Papa: Dispatches from a Dad in the Dark An intimate, irreverent, and unpredictable story of new fatherhood—from the perspective of a blind man.
70,000 words / Finished books available
The final pages of Cockeyed, Ryan Knighton’s internationally acclaimed comic memoir about going blind and growing up, closed with a casual musing about the future, and what fatherhood could mean for a blind man whose off-beat ways tend to privilege misadventure over common sense . Within days of that book’s publication, Ryan’s wife, Tracy, was pregnant .
PRAISE FOR RYAN KNIGHTON’S C’mon Papa “Painfully funny. Whether he’s writing about getting run over, role- RIGHTS SOLD playing a cervix, or losing his infant daughter in the snow, Knighton is Canada: Knopf, Spring 2010 wise, witty, moving, and assured.” Poland: Nasza Ksiegarnia –Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean Cockeyed Ryan Knighton’s story of his slow descent into blindness shines a new light on what we can learn about the broader world through unseeing eyes.
75,000 words / Finished books available • Shortlisted for the 2007 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour • Shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association 2007 Evergreen Awards
RIGHTS SOLD Canada: Penguin, Germany: Rowohlt US: Public Affairs, 2006 Film: Hotchkiss and 2006 Mainland China: Associates, Jodie UK: Atlantic Books, Shanghai Interzone, Foster directing 2007 2007 Poland: Woloszanski Taiwan: JC Culture Italy: San Paolo ALSO AVAILABLE Nothing to See Here: PRAISE FOR RYAN KNIGHTON’S COCKEYED Around the World in “The book is a way to see life through another lens, an invitation to take Four Senses a journey that no reader should refuse.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review RIGHTS SOLD Knopf Canada, 2014 Visit Ryan’s website at http://www.ryanknighton.com/
non-fiction 15 Lori Lansens The Wife’s Tale With sharp humour and delicate grace, The Wife’s Tale follows Mary Gooch—morbidly obese and living in denial— as she pursues her husband across the country.
90,000 words / Finished books available • A New York Times Editor’s Choice, Apr 2010 • A More Magazine Best Book of the Month, February 2010 • An Amazon August 2009 Best Read of the Month
PRAISE FOR LORI LANSEN’S THE WIFE’S TALE “Sensitive but deliciously comic…. Lansens has more than a few tales worth telling.” –THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Lansens’ portrait of a woman who hides behind the Kenmore as RIGHTS SOLD protection from life’s heartache is earthy and primal in its pain. Yet US: Little, Brown, February Lansens doesn’t resort to an overnight makeover to save Mary. Instead, 2010 our heroine uncovers a hidden strength she had all along. Those who loved UK: Virago, February 2010 The Girls will be pleased that Lansens is back. Highly recommended.” Canada: Knopf, 2009 –LIBRARY JOURNAL, starred review Italy: Mondadori Holland: De Bezige Bij “Lansens’ clear prose unveils the connection between a body weighed Brazil: Bertrand Brasil down by flesh and a spirit smothered by loneliness. Mary’s odyssey of French Canada: Alto heartache and hope is not so much about finding her husband as it is about rediscovering herself.” Audio: Brilliance –PEOPLE Poland: W.A.B. Large print: Center Point “[Mary is] a wonderful character, and Lansens’ handling of her eventual Turkey: Artemis transformation into someone capable of compassion and acceptance is Norway: Juritzen handled with a light but assured touch” French (ex Canada): –PUBLISHERS WEEKLY l’Archipel “Lori Lansens, best-selling author of The Girls, structures The Wife’s Tale as the story of a damaged heroine on a quest. The trick is that (as in any good quest story) the real object of the search isn’t what the searcher thinks it is. … [A] fast-moving story and Mary’s gradual metamorphosis… rings true.” –BOOKPAGE
“Lansens writes with acute insight… fully immersing readers in her protagonist’s struggle to find a new and better self.” –BOOKLIST
“Like short-story queen Alice Munro, to whom she is often compared, Lansens demonstrates a singular gift for discerning both the ordinary and the extraordinary in small-town life and small-town people.” –WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Visit Lori’s website at http://www.lorilansens.com/
16 fiction
The Girls The fictional autobiography of conjoined twins, Rose and Ruby Darlen—a breathtaking novel about the profound and transcendent love between two extraordinary sisters.
135,000 words / Finished books available
RIGHTS SOLD Brazil: Globo World Rights ex Canada: Little, Taiwan: Commonwealth Brown, 2006 Sweden: Bra Bocker Canada: Knopf, 2005 Serbia: Beobooks Italy: Mondadori Czech Republic: BB Art UK: Virago Portugal: Casa Das Letras Holland: De Bezige Bij Lithuania: Alma Littera Israel: Modan France: l’Archipel Turkey: Sistem Mainland China: Shanghai Century Germany: Ullstein Norway: Juritzen Poland: MAG France (book club): France Loisirs
• A 2007 Richard & Judy Book Club selection • A New York Times Editor’s Choice • A Wall Street Journal Summer Reads Pick for 2006 • The #1 Booksense Pick for May 2006 • A bestseller in the U.K. Rush Home Road The untold story of the descendants of the Underground Railroad.
387 pages hardcover / Finished books available
RIGHTS SOLD World ex-Canada: Little, Brown, Denmark: Lademann 2002 Germany: Ullstein UK: Virago, 2002 Greece: Oceanida Canada: Knopf, 2002 Italy: Mondadori France: Belfond Israel: Modan Sweden: Bonnier Norway: Juritzen Holland: De Bezige Bij
• Shortlisted for the 2003 Regional Commonwealth Book Prize for Best First Book • Shortlisted for the Rogers Fiction Prize • A Globe and Mail Notable Book of the Year, 2002 • A Canadian and Norwegian bestseller
fiction 17 Annabel Lyon The Golden Mean In the frank, earthy, and engaging voice of Aristotle, The Golden Mean brings to life the world of the ancient Greek philosopher.
75,000 words hardcover / Finished books available • Winner of the 2009 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize • Shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award 2009 • Shortlisted for the Giller Prize 2009 • A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2009 • A #1 Canadian national bestseller
PRAISE FOR ANNABEL LYON’S THE GOLDEN MEAN “A deeply pondered and very beautiful book.” –The New Republic
“This quietly ambitious and beautifully achieved novel is one of the most convincing historical novels I have ever read. Lyon makes her reader RIGHTS SOLD avid for every detail of this strange world, whether domestic or medical US: Knopf, Fall 2010 or military, and she has steeped herself in the thinking of the time. She Canada: Random House, 2009 makes her characters entirely solid and real, while respecting their UK: Atlantic, August 2010 otherness, the distance between us. That is what characterized Mary Spain: Roca Renault’s novels, and I think that she would have deeply admired this France: Table Ronde book. [Lyon’s] judgment is sound and true, and the reader trusts her Brazil: Leya Brasil voice from the first paragraph.” Portugal: Dom Quixote –THE TIMES, LONDON Croatia: Sareni Ducan “[A] vivid imagining of the encounter between Aristotle and the young Taiwan: Ye-Ren Alexander the Great…. Lyon’s evocation of the ancient world is earthy Audio: Recorded Books and immediate.” Turkey: Pegasus –THE NEW YORKER Finland: BTJ Holland: Ambo/Anthos “[Lyon] has shaped history into a narrative not only gripping, but also Greece: Livanis accessible and poignant, even tender…. Here we have a novel that is brave Italy: Aliberti enough to raise the universal questions about how a man should live his life.” French Canadian: Alto –THE BOSTON GLOBE Serbia: Alnari Isreael: Modan “This work’s achievements are its audacity and originality, placing it Czech language: Albatros among the works of the new tradition of sensitive historical fiction.” Media –ALICIA MISHARI, Que Leer (Spain) Large print: Thorndike
“Few writers would dare to employ Aristotle as their narrator but ALSO AVAILABLE Annabel Lyon has done exactly this in her extraordinary novel The The Best Thing for You: Golden Mean. In thoughtful and controlled prose that never fails to grip, Novellas Lyon presents an unexpected portrait of the young Alexander the Great, Oxygen: Stories a fascinating recreation of Plato’s Academy and brings the ancient world Encore Edie back to life with a splendour I haven’t seen since I, Claudius. A triumph RIGHTS SOLD of erudition and story-telling.” McClelland & Stewart –JOHN BOYNE, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas FORTHCOMING TITLE The Sweet Girl Visit Annabel’s website at http://www.annabellyon.blogspot.com/
18 fiction CLIENTs
Angie Abdou Pierre Desrochers Bill Morrison
Ryad Assani-Razaki John Doyle Melanie Murray
Anita Rau Badami Liam Durcan Susan Musgrave
Jean Baird Colin Ellard Leilah Nadir
Judy Fong Bates Valerie Fortney Dawn Promislow
George Bowering Vicki Gabereau Dr. Shafiq Qaadri
Rick Boychuk Paul Glennon Susanne Reber
Alan Bradley Frances Greenslade Stephen Reid
Catherine Bush Jacqueline Honnet Robert Renaud
Robert Calder Adam Honsinger Daniel Richler
Claire Cameron Anosh Irani Eden Robinson
Warren Cariou Davin de Kergommeaux Sandra Sabatini
Abigail Carter Ryan Knighton Lake Sagaris
Susan Catto Gitanjali Kolanad Kerri Sakamoto
Wayson Choy Frank Koller Hiroko Shimizu
Austin Clarke Dr. Meir Kryger John Steffler
George Elliott Clarke Dr. David Kuhl Yasuko Thanh
Ken Coates Lori Lansens Dr. Cathryn Tobin
Joanna Cockerline Evelyn Lau Dragan Todorovic
Valerie Compton Pearl Luke Adria Vasil
Afua Cooper Jeanette Lynes Robert Ward
Brad Cran Annabel Lyon Lucie Wilk
Darrell Dennis Leo McKay Cathleen With
Anthony De Sa Stephen Miller
clients 19 CO-AGENTS
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20 co-agents THE BUKOWSKI AGENCY LTD. 14 Prince Arthur Avenue, Suite 202, Toronto, Ontario M5R 1A9 Catalogue Editor: Tel: (416) 928-6728 Fax: (416) 963-9978 Lenore Dunlop Catalogue Production: For a complete backlist, please visit PageWave Graphics Inc. www.thebukowskiagency.com
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